Everything Everything - Man Alive

In this day and age in the music industry, it can be tempting for artists to veil a lack of musical direction or even talent by labelling their work as somewhat artsy or highbrow. Indeed, if there’s one thing I dislike in music, it is the existence of artists that are pretentious for the mere sake of it, acting in the vain hope that in a framework of irregular time signatures and impenetrable melodies they might be able to ‘trick’ the listener that what they are listening to is actually brilliant and far above their puny musical minds. With this said, the debut album by Everything Everything (EE) shines in its unconventional quirkiness, which not only rewards and charms the listener on each subsequent listen, but also appears an entirely natural affair for the Manchester four-piece.

Eccentricity is undoubtedly the order of the day on Man Alive. Upon first listen, it is easy to acknowledge the altogether uniqueness of EE’s sound, and the well-realised wish of vocalist Jonathan Higgs to sound completely dissimilar to other artists. Single ‘MY KZ, UR BF’ opens with an intricate synth pattern intertwined with Higgs’ layered vocals, soon giving rise to an elaborate guitar riff and syncopated drum beat that wouldn’t sound out of place on a record by fellow math-rockers Battles. The fun continues on tracks like ‘Qwerty Finger’ and ‘Photoshop Handsome’ whose respective synth swells and frenetic rhythms highlight not only the band’s musicianship but also their ear for a good hook. Man Alive sounds like an album where the members are having fun, which is the whole point of it. The yelping vocals of Higgs and the jittering glitch-pop on display here seem entirely organic, rather than strained or premeditated attempts to deliberately sound complex, which is refreshing in a market where too often artists care about their image rather than their music. Even the mischievous chorus of first single ‘Suffragette Suffragette’ (“Cause you're gonna sit on your fence when I'm gone” or is it “Cause who’s gonna sit on your face when I’m gone??") aims to amuse, rather than bewilder.

Man Alive is a record that is a delight to listen to. There are lowlights (‘Final Form’, ‘Two For Nero’) but all in all EE’s debut record represents a team of musicians unpressured by contemporary artists or record companies to mould their sound to fit an obvious audience. A peculiar gem of an album, but one that is always charming in its oddity.

★★★★

Like this? Try Tokyo Police Club.

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